Egotober - 2024

2. Bird || Chase Brody

The park looked the same way it always had. Quiet, secluded, his spot. And his daughter's spot, of course.

But she wasn't here today, Chase didn't know where she was. But it was ok, everything was too peaceful to worry about it. He had her favorite stuffie in his left hand, holding it tightly like it might slip away.

Birds sang high in the trees, and Chase wished mildly that he knew what they were.

After a moment, the singing turned to a repetitive call, chirping over and over, growing louder until it was screaming in his ears. The park bled red, the color leaking down from the sky and coating everything, the red flashing in time with the bird call.

Chase's eyes snapped open. He was standing in the middle of a hallway, glowing red with the alarms that were going off. Shrieking at him, alerting him of danger.

How did he get out here?

Chase ran a hand through his long hair, his nose scrunching up when his fingers stuck in his hair until he pulled them free.

They were covered in blood, all the way up to his elbows. His hands started to shake, as he examined himself, and he realized that something was still in his left hand, though it definitely wasn't a stuffed animal.

He lifted his hand up hesitantly, his hand shaking even harder now as he looked at the heart in his grip, squeezing so tightly his fingers had started to dig into it, blood dripping agonizingly slow down his arm.

And now he was noticing the person in front of him, on the floor. The person with the gaping hole in their chest, where their heart had once been. The heart that was now in Chase's hand.

The alarms weren't going off to warn him of danger, he was the danger.

People rushed down the halls towards him, not yet turning the corner so Chase could only guess at how many there were, but their boots pounded against the floor. He just hoped that he would get to go back to wherever he had been earlier, the place with the bird, while he suffered the repercussions, because he had the feeling that whatever was going to happen to him, was going to hurt.